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Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Hard to Pick

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Business, Investing, How To

4.5811 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A fast, funny Thanksgiving-weekend show where you and Tom unpack why a tiny handful of stocks drive the S&P’s returns, revisit forgotten winners like Hormel and McDonald’s, explain why “you can’t pick them in advance,” and tie it all back to building global, diversified portfolios. Listener calls cover early-retirement withdrawals with 72(t), whether AVGV should replace AVGE, a Thanksgiving relative obsessed with dividends, and a listener being pitched a 1.24% Fidelity “wealth management” upsell. 0:06 Thanksgiving haze, Manhattans, overeating, and setting up the show 2:24 Magnificent 7 vs S&P 493 and how concentrated returns distort hindsight 4:49 1985’s shock winners: Hormel, Lowe’s (the other one), Franklin Resources 7:41 The 1980–1990 decade: Hormel and McDonald’s huge runs and why none were predictable 8:10 Why you need small, value, and international beyond the S&P 500 10:58 Caller: retiring at 56, 72(t) rules, penalties, and whether IRA vs 401(k) location matters 14:28 Correction: SEPP applies only to the chosen account, not all pre-tax assets 16:36 Travel while you can: knees, age, lie-flat flights, and holiday banter 20:21 Caller: AVGE vs AVGV, value tilts, the overlap, and whether it’s worth the swap 22:49 Why AVGV exists (and why advisors may not need it) 27:35 Thanksgiving email: dividend-obsessed relative critiques VXUS payouts 29:53 What dividends really mean—and don’t—and why payout “stability” is useless 35:49 Voicemail: Fidelity wants 1.24% to “manage” half a 401(k); is it worth it? (No.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Olivia loves a challenge.

0:02.0

It's why she lifts heavy weights,

0:04.0

and likes complicated recipes.

0:07.0

But for booking her trip to Paris,

0:10.0

Olivia chose the easy way with Expedia.

0:12.0

She bundled her flight with a hotel to save more.

0:14.0

Of course, she still climbed all 674 steps to the top of the Eiffel Town.

0:19.0

You were made to take the easy route.

0:22.9

We were made to easily package your trip.

0:25.5

Expedia, made to travel.

0:27.8

Flight inclusive packages are at all protected.

0:36.2

Reality Radio for a really great future.

0:39.2

We're talking real money.

0:41.7

Hey, welcome to our little weekend get-together that we call talking real money.

0:46.1

Thanks for getting together with us, me, Don McDonald, him, Tom Cock, and the Icedover

0:52.3

ADU.

0:53.6

And we're here to talk with you about the things that you do with your dough every day of your life, pretty much, because you know you deal with money a lot.

1:02.6

We want to make it easier for you.

1:04.3

We want to make you feel better about investing and saving and maybe even spending your money better than you did before.

1:13.0

855-935-935 talk is our telephone number. That's 855-935-825-5. We had a very busy holiday

1:22.0

hour last hour. That was awesome. Keep them coming. Keep that giving mood going.

1:27.4

Apparently, you guys have eaten enough. Keep them coming. Keep that giving mood going.

...

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